by Dale Chappell
It’s no secret that the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) has neither sped up the death penalty nor prevented terrorism. What continues to surprise many is that this much-criticized law has somehow survived, despite countless judges recounting their frustration with it. Indeed, it has survived ...
by Dale Chappell
In a federal appellate court filing on August 20, 2020, nearly five years after a federal judge ordered officials to stop recording privileged calls between attorneys and their clients waiting for trial at the Leavenworth Detention Center (LDC) in Kansas, the U.S. government refused to comply with ...
by Dale Chappell
If you’re one of the millions of Americans with a conviction barring you from serving jury duty in your state, maybe it’s not one of the rights you lost that you miss. After all, many people aren’t disappointed when they’re skipped for jury duty.
But state laws ...
by Dale Chappell
A new watchdog nonprofit in New Mexico is focusing on exposing the culture of secrecy in the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD), which the group says interferes with the ability to monitor civil rights violations against prisoners.
Called the New Mexico Prison and Jails Project (PJP), it ...
by Dale Chappell
More and more states across the country have been coming around and allowing those with felony records to vote, some even allowing prisoners to vote. Now Congress has jumped on-board, the House of Representatives passing a bill in March that would restore voting rights to those who ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri entered an order on November 12, 2020, finding that Missouri’s parole system was unconstitutional, handing down a laundry list of corrections needed.
The problem was Missouri’s handling of parole revocation proceedings, which the Court said violated parolees’ ...
by Dale Chappell
Need help paying for college while in prison? Getting financial aid in prison for college got easier on December 20, 2020. That’s when Congress passed a $1.4 trillion government spending bill for 2021 that included a provision to lift a 26-year-old ban on giving prisoners federal financial ...
by Dale Chappell
When historic wildfires burned through Arizona in June 2020, two out of three of the firefighters who brought the blazes under control were state prisoners who were paid just pennies on the dollar to do the same job as well-paid professional firefighters working right next to them. ...
by Dale Chappell
Apparently, it’s easier to release someone from jail and dismiss the charges if their issues become too much trouble, according to a lawsuit filed by James Bagley in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Bagley was arrested in September 2017 for suspected driving ...
by Dale Chappell
Former prisoners who have turned to the nonprofit organization The Doe Fund in New York City for work and job training have found themselves making less than minimum wage, once the Doe Fund takes its fees out of their paychecks. Some say this is exploitation of those ...
